Free Republic

On April 29, The House of representatives passed the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 (H.R. 1913) by a vote of 249 to 175. It is expected to be taken up in the Senate any day now. Critics of the measure contend that, if the bill becomes law, it will force local and state law enforcement to prosecute and sentence individuals not only for the crimes they commit, but also for their beliefs—a slippery slope which will take the country down the road toward eventually criminalizing the thoughts of the American people.

The groundbreaking court case uncovered Scotland's biggest paedophile network and revealed the shocking crimes of a "spider's web of apparently respectable men". A jury at the High Court in Edinburgh took ten hours to return verdicts on 54 separate charges. It emerged during the case that the ringleaders Neil Strachan and James Rennie befriended the families of the children they abused. Rennie, 38, was the chief executive of LGBT Youth Scotland, a group dedicated to helping young lesbian and homosexual deal with their sexuality.Strachan, 41, a paint firm engineer who was previously jailed for molesting a young boy, was the...